Sony confirms two new e-book readers

There have been rumors lately that suggested Sony is readying two new e-book readers. This news has been confirmed by Sony who has responded with an official update to its reader line of e-book devices. The two new models are the PRS-300 Pocket Edition and PRS-600 Touch Edition. It is expected that these models will be less expensive than the PRS-505 when it was initially launched. There is also some speculation that there will be a price drop on bestselling books from $12 to $10 that matches similar pricing from Amazon's Kindle Store and the Barnes & Noble e-book store. Sony has already helped drive lower-cost books by adding Google's catalog of free, public domain titles.

The new e-book readers will have a 600x800 e-paper display with 512MB of built-in memory and will accept both memory sticks and SD cards for extra storage. There will also be a new native Mac client for loading books over USB in addition to the existing Windows version.

The PRS-300 has a 5-inch display with direction pad to browse through the titles. It supports both Sony's own bookstore downloads as well as more generic formats like PDF and Word. On the other hand, the PRS-600 has a larger 6-inch touchscreen display that is described as more readable than that for the PRS-700. It no longer includes the side lighting as part of its price drops.

The readers will ship later this month at prices of $199 for the PRS-300 and $299 for the PRS-600. Also Mac users who already own the PRS-505 and PRS-700 will receive both Mac software and Reader firmware to recognize it by the time the new devices are in stores.

Links: http://www.electronista.com/articles/09/08/04/sony.reader.book.cost.leak/

http://www.electronista.com/articles/09/08/04/sony.prs.300.and.prs.600/